Why Los Angeles' Mayor Should Join Obama's Cabinet

Let us dispense with the nonsense first. If Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is the next Secretary of Transportation, it is not going to stop the howls of fauxtrage from the opposition that the president has somehow betrayed their sudden devotion to "diversity" in putting a team together for his second term. The usual suspects merely will shift the argument to the president's having been "forced" to do this because of "pressure" from "some people."

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Villaraigosa, who is Hispanic, could be an attractive candidate for the position if LaHood retires. Obama has come under fire for a lack of diversity in his initial second term appointments — his picks for secretary of State, Defense, Treasury and CIA director have all been white men, which has been frequently pointed out by Republicans in Congress.

Give a rest, guys, and keep grooming Tim Scott to be the J.C. Watts of the new millennium.

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Also, the political ripples, both in California and nationally, while interesting, are also rather beside the point. I do admit that, historically, the Department Of Transportation has not been exactly the cradle of senators. And I do wonder if we're ever going to reach the point where a president feels comfortable staffing the majority of his Cabinet with people who have never held elective office, or who have never been part of the general Beltway power elites. I recall several people expressing cow-like symptoms four years ago when the president appointed Steven Chu — who was merely a Nobel Prize-winning physicist, but who probably couldn't find Ben and Sally's if you stood him on the front lawn — as the Secretary of Energy. I'm not deriding the value of credentials or expertise — I am not bucking for a guest-host's spot on Fox And Friends — but I do often wish we could expand the definition of what are relevant credentials and/or relevant expertise. This president seems willing to do that, albeit in the muted, undramatic way he does everything else.

Mayors know transportation. When the snow falls, or the earth quakes, and people get caught in traffic for hours, it's the people answering phones in the mayor's office who get their ears burned, and it's the mayor who fails to adequately respond who gets his career burned the next time out. Last year, Villaraigosa was instrumental in passing a transportation bill that included funding for transportation projects in his city, and he was so dogged about it that he managed to get it through a Congress half of which is dedicated both to obstructing everything this administration wanted to do, and also not overly inclined to do much for parts of the country that do not appeal to it politically. (He also managed to do it while mired in the kind of romantic foofaraw tailor-made for the shiny-objects elements of the media.) He may not have done much for his future political aspirations, but he knows how to make it easier to get from one place to another.